Used clothing

[Les]

Hi

I am trying, for eco and budgetary reasons, to buy used gear. I find it really difficult to trawl through Ebay/Vinted etc to find specific items. Does anyone have any tips for how to use these sites effectively, or places that are better to look.
Thanks

 

[demented dale]

Hi

I am trying, for eco and budgetary reasons, to buy used gear. I find it really difficult to trawl through Ebay/Vinted etc to find specific items. Does anyone have any tips for how to use these sites effectively, or places that are better to look.
Thanks

ok. ebay. put in what you want. there is a condition button. press used. then press auction or buy now. In the right hand column you can put your max price and even the color of item you want. Ebay will filter all the stuff out for you. You just have to tell it the specifics. Other than that charity shop.

 

[MrEd]

Hi

I am trying, for eco and budgetary reasons, to buy used gear. I find it really difficult to trawl through Ebay/Vinted etc to find specific items. Does anyone have any tips for how to use these sites effectively, or places that are better to look.
Thanks

I do the same, I find eBay a bit easier than vinted to find specific items tbh but I have had some right bargains on vinted and in most cases when I have bought something that when it arrives doesn’t fit or whatever I have generally been able to move it on for what I paid for it, occasionally more

 

[Pattree]

I wonder if it’s worth banging the old eco drum again on this one.

ANYTHING that you buy second hand, whatever it is made of, is better for our environment than anything that you buy, whatever it is made of, to replace something that is still useable.

I have come to thoroughly enjoy Freecycle and exploring charity shops, something that I would never have done thirty years ago.

There are very few items of clothing that I would buy new today - they don’t appear in charity shops anyway!

@Les:
There are charity shops and there are charity shops depending on where you live. It’s probably worth a bus ride if you find one or two that suit you.

The ones close to my youngest daughter near Oxford tend to sell very fashionable clothing that isn’t that old but it’s still not cheap. You won’t often find pots and pans there.
Many of the ones around here in Shrewsbury tend to be small, very mixed. The probability of finding what you are looking for is low.

However there are some big ones like the Salvation Army and the Severn Hospice Superstore that are well worth a visit when I’m in the vicinity.

If you get to know the staff perhaps they will text you when something that you are looking for comes in.

Edited to add:
If ever you are in Keswick there are some great ones that often have outdoor gear at very good prices.

The research and exploration are fun in themselves.

 

[hughtrimble]

The trick with Vinted is you need to save the brand, and then base for search from there. Often the only way to save the brand though, is to find an existing listing and click on the brand name there, as otherwise Vinted sometimes won't recognise it (it's a pretty shambolic search system they have). After that, it's a case of putting in terms you think the general public will use to describe the item you're after. I was after a Marmot Driclime Ether, but knowing that a lot of people have no idea what they own and the fact that Marmot like Montane write absolutely nothing useful in the labels (why?!), had to search within the Marmot brand for things like 'fleece', 'jacket' etc. eventually found one but only after looking at a lot of listings and seeing if the garment had the exact features I knew were on the version I wanted.

It's also worth asking naïvely what they use to wash the clothes. If it's a piece of technical clothing and they say anything about fabric softener, you know they have zero clue and that the garment is probably wrecked.

 

[hughtrimble]

I wonder if it’s worth banging the old eco drum again on this one.

ANYTHING that you buy second hand, whatever it is made of, is better for our environment than anything that you buy, whatever it is made of, to replace something that is still useable.

The OP is specifically talking about buying used gear? Not sure you need to bang the drum when the OP is already on it.

 

[Limaed]

Hi

I am trying, for eco and budgetary reasons, to buy used gear. I find it really difficult to trawl through Ebay/Vinted etc to find specific items. Does anyone have any tips for how to use these sites effectively, or places that are better to look.
Thanks

Don’t forget your local car boot sale. Over the years I’ve picked up lots of amazing gear for very little. You do need to go regularly and early in the morning (be there for 0700!) but it’s worth the effort. Don’t expect to just pick up what you need, just be open to surprises. I recently got a Terra Nova tent for £5 not bad when they are £350.

 

[Tengu]

Found a HH jacket in a local charity shop but it was bright red.

 

[TeeDee]

I wonder if it’s worth banging the old eco drum again on this one.

ANYTHING that you buy second hand, whatever it is made of, is better for our environment than anything that you buy, whatever it is made of, to replace something that is still useable.

I have come to thoroughly enjoy Freecycle and exploring charity shops, something that I would never have done thirty years ago.

There are very few items of clothing that I would buy new today - they don’t appear in charity shops anyway!

@Les:
There are charity shops and there are charity shops depending on where you live. It’s probably worth a bus ride if you find one or two that suit you.

The ones close to my youngest daughter near Oxford tend to sell very fashionable clothing that isn’t that old but it’s still not cheap. You won’t often find pots and pans there.
Many of the ones around here in Shrewsbury tend to be small, very mixed. The probability of finding what you are looking for is low.

However there are some big ones like the Salvation Army and the Severn Hospice Superstore that are well worth a visit when I’m in the vicinity.

If you get to know the staff perhaps they will text you when something that you are looking for comes in.

Edited to add:
If ever you are in Keswick there are some great ones that often have outdoor gear at very good prices.

The research and exploration are fun in themselves.

So what has essentially changed in you from where you are now to the person you were 30 years ago? What was your thinking then

 

[TeeDee]

The only thing I've noticed with 2nd hand clothing for men is possibly that men tend to take a piece of clothing from cradle to grave - meaning we will tend to nurse a new piece of clothing through all its stages of wear and tear to a point where its fairly unusable.

I have looked around charity shops and free cycle type shops mostly whilst waiting for a partner whom wants to have a look themselves - they tend to come out with several pieces of clothing because they have been handed in whilst they still have 'life' in them- ie they look like you can still wear them , colours are still strong and no ripped , torn or worn areas.

Most mens clothing Ive seen in charity shops and freecycle seem frankly to come from probate disposal. Which if its your thing is fine I guess.

 

[Keith_Beef]

The only thing I've noticed with 2nd hand clothing for men is possibly that men tend to take a piece of clothing from cradle to grave - meaning we will tend to nurse a new piece of clothing through all its stages of wear and tear to a point where its fairly unusable.

I have looked around charity shops and free cycle type shops mostly whilst waiting for a partner whom wants to have a look themselves - they tend to come out with several pieces of clothing because they have been handed in whilst they still have 'life' in them- ie they look like you can still wear them , colours are still strong and no ripped , torn or worn areas.

Most mens clothing Ive seen in charity shops and freecycle seem frankly to come from probate disposal. Which if its your thing is fine I guess.

At the risk of being accused of sexist over-generalisation, this rings true with me. I will buy some clothing second-hand, and some shops seem to get in new old stock (possibly liquidation sales). I got a very nice Swanndri bush shirt (brand new, still with tags) and an overcoat (can't tell if it was new or worn very little, forgot the brand) like that in Groningen a couple of years ago.

My own clothes, when I finally bring myself to part with them, are probably only good for recycling the fibres into dusters and mops.

SWMBO and all my female friends will send off clothes as donations to charities or will send them to consignment shops or auctions. Same with shoes and to a lesser degree with jewellery. They don't like to wear the same things year after year (sometimes it seems like week after week).

I and my male friends don't care so much about needing to keep up with fashion (well, this is less true for the younger ones, or those with customer-facing jobs in sales or consulting).

Sometimes, when we're going out to see friends, SWMBO will look at me and say "couldn't you find a better fitting pair of jeans to put on?"

"What's wrong with these?"

"They're a bit baggy and long in the legs..."

"We bought these together at the Levi factory shop eight years ago."

"Yeah, well they were OK then."

"The jeans haven't changed. I've not changed. If you liked them then but not now, it must be that you've changed."

 

[MrEd]

My clothes, as a male, tend go through the following process

1. New/smart clothes - work, best, casual wear when socialising with the wife - worn until damaged/worn, or not suitable for that purpose anymore then they move to category 2, sometimes repaired and then car. 2

2. Everyday wear - running around town, school run, dog walking etc - still functional and presentable just not ‘restaurant quality’ worn until faded/misshappen/ripped then move to category 3. This category also includes ‘bushcraft wear’. Items in category 2 will also get repaired to keep them in category 2

3. Worn as rough work clothes - gardening, decorating, mechanicking, dirty work - worn until they literally don’t work functionally anymore then move to category 4. Cat 3 items don’t get repaired (unless it’s a very easy repair then something from cat 4 might be used to effect the repair!)

4. Rags - suitable materials cut up and used as rags in various hobbies, (leatherwork, landrover repairing etc) to mop up spills, polishing, cleaning etc. some items stripped down to recover buttons or zips or nice sections of fabric for sewing projects etc. next is category 5

5. The bin - used rags, or elements of clothes that have no practical purpose or salvageable bits. Used rags as in oily etc get binned, the rest gets saved up and goes to the tip in the materials and fabrics bin for recycling.

I very rarely have anything good enough to donate, if I do it’s only really stuff that is vastly the wrong size, or that I _really_ dislike (given as a gift for example).

 

[Pattree]

Agreed about many men and their clothes. I don’t buy many from charity shops because I don’t buy many clothes. Last year I did buy a faux worn leather jacket (as opposed to worn faux leather). I’ve worn it a lot over winter.

It’s made of plastic but that plastic is already in the system. I’m not exerting a pull on the manufacture of plastic clothing. The coat isn’t replacing anything that isn’t yet worn out. I’ve taken on the responsibility for its disposal.

Only when I got it home did SWWISN tell me that it was made popular by someone called Justin Bieber. I do not know what I was meant to do with that information.

 

[Tengu]

So what has essentially changed in you from where you are now to the person you were 30 years ago? What was your thinking then

I think our attitude to second hand clothing has changed.

When I was young it was the refuge of the very mean or destitute; most folk had new.

My mother would have been horrified at the idea of wearing something used.

 

[Pattree]

Thirty years ago I was travelling light across the globe on business. The environment was on the agenda but was mostly “greenwashing”. It would be another five or ten years before my daughters started to enjoy charity shopping at Uni. I learned from them.

 

[Keith_Beef]

Thirty years ago I was travelling light across the globe on business. The environment was on the agenda but was mostly “greenwashing”. It would be another five or ten years before my daughters started to enjoy charity shopping at Uni. I learned from them.

My daughter has existentialist angst about "thrifting" as she calls it.

She wants to reduce her consumption, but feels that when relatively affluent people buy second-hand it deprives people who are genuinely unable to afford sustainable new goods...

This reminds me of the change from the days when to be thin was to be poor and to be fat was to be wealthy, whereas now it is more that thin people are rich and the poor are fat.

 

[Tengu]

But we have more than enough clothing in the world for EVERYONE

 

[Keith_Beef]

But we have more than enough clothing in the world for EVERYONE

Just like tomatoes, then.

 

[Ozmundo]

Online I have several people get most of second hand clothing & kit from. Build up contacts.

All my clothing growing up was hand me down, even into adult hood. I had a very snazzy white fake motor cycle jacket at one point. But that was the 1980’s.

I still get second hand kit from people I know more often than not.
I have a lot of one-careful-owner scuba gear from the Coroner.

 

[MrEd]

I think our attitude to second hand clothing has changed.

When I was young it was the refuge of the very mean or destitute; most folk had new.

My mother would have been horrified at the idea of wearing something used.

Whereas my mum when I was growing up would have been horrified at the price of new, I don’t think apart from the odd coat I ever wore anything new - all was hand me downs and charity shop stuff, but we were very poor (although I didn’t know it at the time) after my dad died and lived in a deprived part of Gravesend.

Now I am all grower up and come good I can afford decent clothes, but I still gladly wear and buy second hand and feel no shame doing so.

My daughter mainly wears second hand aswell, and I hope to instill in her a similar mindset.

As for rich purchasing second hand and preventing poor people from doing so themselves, I am not sure I agree. I do think it’s a bit bad if someone strips the shelves just to sell it on on vinted for profit etc. but I guess I can’t judge, that may be what they have to do to feed their family…..